As a food additive, it is used as an acidity regulator and can be denoted by the E number E297. It is generally used in beverages and baking powders for which requirements are placed on purity. Fumaric acid is used in the making of wheat tortillas as a food preservative and as the acid in leavening.
Fumaric acid is an important specialty chemical with wide for the synthesis of polymeric resins to acidulant in foods and pharmaceuticals.